Power Protection for Point of Sale Systems

A brief power disturbance shutting down a POS (Point-Of-Sale) system in the middle
of a transaction while customers wait in line is every retailer's nightmare. Not only
because such an occurrence keeps paying customers waiting, but also because registers are
now tracking many levels of information (price, inventory, promotions, etc.) and power
fluctuations -- such as spikes, surges, brownouts and blackouts -- can corrupt this
valuable collection of data.

Todays systems -- most of which are PCs -- are extremely sensitive to power
fluctuations because they support several peripherals (scanners, scales, credit card
terminals, etc.) that can be damaged. This collection of equipment, which is all located
on the same circuit, also places a high demand on power, which can create its own
brownouts.

Uninterruptible power supplies are of extreme value in a POS environment due to the
protection they provide to hardware equipment and valuable data, as well as supplying
backup power to continue conducting business transactions, even during a blackout.